Movie Make-out

If you like a good scare, this looks promising. The final trailer for Pandorum shows some super-creepy promise, but it also sounds a lot like Event Horizon meets the Reavers from Firefly, neither of which I feel brave enough to subject myself to for a solid two hours. (Event Horizon is one of the few movies I’ve refused to finish, because I found it so repellent.)

In the sci-fi horror film Pandorum, Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid wake up on an abandoned spacecraft with no idea who they are, how long they’ve been asleep, or what their mission is. The two soon discover they’re actually not alone — and the reality of their situation is more horrifying than they could have imagined.”

I really love the premise of people waking up in the middle of a decades-long interstellar voyage, however I think I’ll wait to see the sci-fi romance approach with Jon Spaihts’ Passengers, in which a man (Keanu Reeves) “is awakened 90 years before anyone else. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he awakens a beautiful woman.”

Now that I think about it, the plot of Passengers could just as easily gone the horror route, too.

Pandorum comes out on September 4, 2009.

If earlier this week you woke up and heard an anguished cry all over the Internet, you have the Whedonites to blame for that.

The fans of writer/director/creator Joss Whedon are known for being an unruly, fiercely devoted lot and it was their cry upon learning from The Hollywood Reporter that Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband Kaz Kuzui (who were responsible for directing and producing 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie) are going to be remaking and/or relaunching the franchise without Whedon’s input, blessing, or influence that rumbled across the ‘tubes.

Instead, it’s Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment (executive producers on The Ring and The Departed) who will be working with the Kuzuis on this new iteration.

From the article:

The parties are meeting with writers and hearing takes, and later will look for a home for the project. The producers do not rule out Whedon’s involvement but have not yet reached out to him. Speaking from Tokyo, Fran Kuzui said the company is constantly approached not only about sequels but theater, video games and foreign remakes for Buffy. When Vertigo’s Lee contacted them, they were intrigued.

“It was Roy’s interest in taking Buffy into a new place that grabbed us,” she said, noting that original exec producer Sandy Gallin also was consulted. “It was based on our respect for what he does, and his particular sensitivity to Asian filmmakers, that we wanted to work with him.”

A Variety article written later in the week has a bit more insight straight from a horse’s mouth: “Now seems like the right time,” said Vertigo principal Roy Lee. “Studios are looking for a franchise and vampires are relevant again.”

Taking a look at Lee and Davison’s producing record, I can understand why the Kuzuis want to work with him, and it’s more than just their “particular sensitivity to Asian filmmakers”—it’s the fact that they know how to put a project together well.

I mean, what Asian film fan in their right mind would have ever thought that a U.S. version of Infernal Affairs would ever turn out well? And yet, Departed has a 92% Tomatometer reading, which goes to show that not all remakes are terrible things.

It’s only because of their record that I’m withholding judgment until find out more. And if that makes me a traitor to the Whedonite cause, well then… I think I’m going to run and hide now.

MySpace provides us with a glimpse of Toto the Hero director Jaco van Dormael’s Mr. Nobody, starring Jared Leto and Sarah Polley.

The official explanation goes:

Mr. Nemo Nobody (Leto) is 35 years old and lives an ordinary life with his wife and three kids but, somehow, he one day wakes up in the swimming pool of an opulent mansion in the year 2092. Not only is he the oldest man in the entire world, at 120, he’s also the only mortal man — nobody else is ever going to die. He tries to work out what is real, and if his real life is the one he should have lived.

Mr. Nobody comes out this winter in van Dormael’s native Belgium, but there is no American or UK release date set. (The movie itself is entirely in English, incidentally.)

Leto talks about the film a bit over in this MTV e2 interview. Just to 2:45 to get past most of the obnoxious MTV fluff. (If you only care about the movie, not Jared Leto himself, you can click away when he starts talking about how awesome Sarah Polley is.)

The first trailer for Jonathan Mostow’s Surrogates is up thanks to MySpace, and it looks pretty good!

In the film, Bruce Willis and Pitch Black’s Radha Mitchell star as FBI agents investigating “the mysterious murder of a college student linked to the man who helped create a high-tech surrogate phenomenon that allows people to purchase unflawed robotic versions of themselves—fit, good looking remotely controlled machines that ultimately assume their life roles—enabling people to experience life vicariously from the comfort and safety of their own homes”—or, basically internet avatars for your real life.

As premises go, it’s a little out there (and the fact that it’s the first murder in 15 years is more than a little ludicrous), but since the movie doesn’t seem to be taking itself that seriously, I can get over it.

SURROGATES trailer in HD

Surrogates is based on the comic book by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. The film comes out on September 25, 2009.

A new trailer for Shane Acker’s feature-length expansion of his animated short 9 is out on the internets, and it continues to look pretty freaking sweet.

Here’s the official synopsis:

When 9 (The Lord of the Ring’s Elijah Wood) first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.

The film comes out on 9/9/09.

Related Post: Trailer Watch: 9 trailer